168 ON THE DISTINCTION
With regard to heterogeneous commodities,
there are in fact only two conceivable criteria
of riches: one, the utility of any possessions;
the other, their value, The first is in the
highest degree unsteady and indeterminate, and
altogether inapplicable. Iron, as Mr. Ricardo
remarks, may be more useful than gold, but
the possession of a pound of the former metal
would not constitute a man as rich as that of
an equal weight of the latter. Value, there-
fore, is the only criterion of riches which is left
to us.
In determining, then, the question whether
riches could be increased, without an increase
of value, we must recur to the principles laid
down in the last chapter. The answer in each
particular case will depend on the medium of
estimation. There is one additional remark,
however, which may be here introduced. In
the chapter referred to, a case was supposed,
in which all commodities were produced in
double quantity by the same labour, with the
exception of one solitary article, and it was